Hemorragia Digestiva Alta Drs Carlos Barrientos Cabezas
HEMORRAGIAS DIGESTIVAS ALTAS NO VARICOSAS Medidas generales:
The role that NGOs have in society is conditioned on their independence. There is therefore a prerequisite of autonomy in order for these groups to freely be able to exercise their right to freedom of association and expression. First of all, they are heavily reliant on external resources because of their not-for-profit character. Optimally and for the sake of their objectivity, these should include a mixture of both international and governmental grants.
Second, they need legitimacy and credibility to be able to work within the society, both among the general population, but ultimately also with state officials and other stakeholders. They are therefore also dependent on a friendly legal environment that encourages and welcomes their views and findings as valuable to the overall well being of society. They should also be free to function as efficiently as possible, without the hindrance of unnecessary and excessive administrative and managerial tasks that take up their time and focus. And their role as watchdogs ensuring transparency of the actions of public authorities should be conducted without the fear of prosecution and unjustifiable sanctions, especially NGOs working with politically sensitive issues.
The freedom of association and expression have come under increasing attack after Vladimir Putin’s third inauguration as Russia’s President, despite the fact that these rights are explicitly guaranteed by the Russian Constitution and legally binding international human rights treaties to which Russia is a part of. The findings of this research indicate that he Foreign Agent Law manages to affect and disrupt all the abovementioned conditions simultaneously. It intrudes their right to seek and secure resources through creating conditions that strongly discourage “politically active” NGOs from seeking international grants because of the foreign agent status that accompanies such obtainment. Even if the prospects of acquiring state or private funding were good in Russia, this would again raise issues with regards to the independence and capacity to be monitors on state power when their overall financial stability is dependent on funding from the government.188 However, because of the lack of such domestic grants, it leaves them with no other option than to register in order to maintain their legal entity status. This label, because of the associations that it carries with it, damages their reputation to the point where their operations are severely affected. Their credibility and legitimacy is significantly impaired, making it hard for them to efficiently perform their work at all levels of society.
Ironically, the law is introducing alterations to federal laws that were in fact created with the precise intention of establishing reliability and trustworthiness to NGOs after a critical period of low NGO confidence and disillusionment among the public.189 The effects of introducing the amendments are therefore working against the aim of the regulations that they are modifying. Also, the administrative reporting requirements that the law places on them are further disrupting their focus and managerial resources that could instead be allocated elsewhere, especially since it has been recognized that these demands are not necessary for the sate to control the objectivity of the activities of the NGOs.190 The law also has an aspect of intimidation because of the severity of the series of civil, administrative and criminal sanctions that is establishes for non-compliance, which ultimately blur the distinction between what constitutes a criminal offence, and an administrative offence.191
The provisions of the law are clearly directed at restricting the independence and authority of these organizations, in order to limit their influence in society. This is accomplished by the subtle introduction of seemingly neutral wording into the provisions, vague articulation of the law as well as wide margin of discretion accredited to the Ministry of Justice allowing for arbitrary application. The paper therefore argues that in the absence of any alternatives, the NGOs falling within the scope of the law are forced to register as foreign agents consequently damaging their reputation to the degree where they loose credibility and legitimacy and cannot perform the work competently. The findings therefore indicate a violation of the limitation clauses as stipulated in the ECHR, Art. 11§2 and 10§2.
189 Albertie, 2004 p. 20
190 For a more detailed information about this law, see page 15-‐16 191 Application, Ecodefence, Golos and 9 other NGOs v. Russia, 2013 p. 23
Eleven of the leading Russian human rights NGOs192 have contested the law by lodging an application to the European Court on the 6th of February 2013, asserting the status of so-
called “potential victims”.193 None of the organizations had been targeted at the time of the
submission, but the recent enforcements and filed cases are confirming their fears and consolidating their claims. The question remains whether the ECtHR would establish interference with freedom of association and expression based on the notion of damaged reputation and public opinion. The Court has not exercised such practise at any previous occasions. The probability of repealing the law if a violation will be declared is surely an overly optimistic assumption. However a clarification of the vague terminology used, and an overall moderation of the law should as a consequence be encouraged.
The Russian Federation is increasingly stifling governmental critics by introducing a mixture of legal and administrative obstacles, repressions, fines and inspections. Smaller and somewhat camouflaged limitations and regulations have been adopted in order to achieve a bigger goal of restricting dissent more broadly, as can be seen with the recent adoption of several laws that limit the freedom of association and expression. One way to interpret these measures is to look at them as clear demonstration of state power. Another is to consider them as indications of government insecurity, with regards to the potential power and influence that NGOs and the overall civil society is holding. They are then consequently nothing less than clear signs of weakness of the Russian authorities trying to hastily limit or delay the potential outcomes of such criticism.
192 Ecodefence, Golos, Citizen’s Watch, Committee of Civic Assistance, Committee Against Torture,
Mashr, International Memorial, Moscow Helsinki Group, Public Verdict, Human Rights Center Memorial and Movement for Human Rights.
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